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VIII. The Life and Death of Archbishop Cranmer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2010

Abstract

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Type
Narratives of the Days of the Reformation
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1859

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References

page 219 note a In 1523.

page 220 note b John Longland, bishop of Lincoln 1521; died 1547.

page 221 note a Bale enumerated among the archbishop's works, “De non ducenda fratria, lib. ii.” but the work is not now extant. See Mr. Jenkyns's remarks on the subject, Remains of Cranmer, vol. i. p. vi.

page 221 note b The several parties mentioned in the text were employed in various missions to the continent at the period in question: but it does not appear that they were ever placed all together in one embassy.

page 221 note c Thomas earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde, the father of queen Anne Boleyne. He was sent ambassador to the emperor with doctor Stokisley and doctor Lee, in Jan. 1529–30 (see State Papers, 4to. 1849, vii. 230,) and was also in France about the same period, as well as his son George lord Rochford.

page 221 note d Edward Lee, D.D. archbishop of York 1531; died 1544.

page 221 note e John Stokisley, D.D. bishop of London 1530; died 1539. He was sent to France with George Boleyne, gentleman of the king's privy chamber (and presently viscount Rochford): see their instructions in State Papers, 1849, vii. 219.

page 221 note f John Tregonwell, LL.D. afterwards knighted. He was a prebendary of Westminster as well as member of parliament.

page 221 note g Edward Came, LL.D. afterwards knighted in 1541. He was appointed to the function of king Henry's excusator at Rome: see State Papers, 4to. 1849, vii. 269, He died in 1561 at Rome, where his monument still exists.

h William Benet, LL.D., archdeacon of Dorset 1530, dean of Salisbury 1531; died 1533.

page 222 note a Warham died on the 23d August, 1532.

page 222 note b Mr. Jenkyns, who quotes the above as a passage written by Strype (from Memorials of Cranmer, p. 32), remarks: “These ‘old collections’ are probably those which are still preserved at Lambeth under the title of Archbishop Cranmer's Collection of Laws. They were formed, perhaps, while he resided at Cambridge, and consist of a large number of passages, extracted at length from the canon law, and followed by that short summary of some of its remarkable doctrines which is here printed (i.e. in the Remains of Cranmer, 1833, ii. 1–10).” There is, however, besides “Abp. Cranmer's Collections of Lawe,” (which is 1107 of the Lambeth MSS.) another folio volume (1108) indorsed Sentential doctorum virorwm de Sacramentis, being Cranmer's collections on theological subjects, the heads of the There is further another large collection, formed by Cranmer, of estracta from the holy scripture and the fathers, which now forms the volumes 7 B XI, and XII, of the, Royal MSS. in the British Museum. Its contents are given by Mr, Jenkyos in his vol. iv.pp. 147–150, and Cranmer's Works, (Parker Sac) ii, 7, 8, (See in the Appendix hereafter the remarkable particulars of its. history as a MS.) The writer of the text was probably aware of the existence of all these, collections, pf which he had previously given a general description (see p. 219).

page 223 note a The divorce was pronounced on the 23d May, 1533.

page 223 note b John Stokisley, consecrated 1530, died 1539.

page 223 note c Stephen Gardyner, bishop of Winchester 1531.

page 223 note d Riohard Sampson, bishop of Chichester 1536, translated to Lichfield and Coventry 1543, died 1554.

page 223 note e William Repps, alias Rugge, bishop of Norwich 1536, died 1650.

page 223 note f Thomas Goodrich, bishop of Ely 1534, died 1554.

page 223 note g Hugh Latiruer, bishop of Worcester 1535, resigned 1539.

page 223 note h Nicholas Shaxton, bishop of Salisbury 1535, resigned 1539.

page 223 note i William Barlow, consecrated bishop of St. Asaph 1533, translated to St. David's 1536, to Bath and Wells 1548, deprived 1553, appointed to Chiohester 1559, died 1668.

page 224 note a This was the name popularly given to The Institution of a Christian Man, issued in 1537. On the archbishop's share in its composition see Mr. Jenkyns's preface to the Remains of Cranmer, p. xvii.

page 224 note b The Book of Common Prayer, afterwards mentioned.

page 224 note c This does not appear to have been the fact, unless by the act already passed in 1536, for “extynguyshing the auctoryte of the bisshop of Rome,” 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 10. Statutes of the Realm, iii. 663.

page 224 note d The act of the Six Articles was passed in 1539,31 Hen. VIII. cap. 14, and was entitled, “An Acte abolishinge of diversity of opinions in certen articles concerning Christian religion:” see Statutes of the Realm, iii. 739. The articles are given by Jenkyns, Pref. p. xxv.

page 224 note e In 1543 appeared A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christen Man, commonly called the King's Book. On its composition see Jenkyns, Pref. p. xxxvi.; Ridley's Works, (Parker Soc.) p. 511; and Morice's Anecdotes, hereafter, p. 248.

page 225 note a The Book of Common Prayer, first set forth in 1549, and amended in 1552,

page 226 note b —“so he would not commit his conscience to other men's facts.” Foxe.

page 226 note a It will be recollected that Cranmer himself addressed to queen Mary an explanation of the circumstances under which he had been induced to consent to king Edward's settlement of the crown. It is to be found in Strype's Cranmer, Appx. No. LXXIV. Cranmer's Remains, i. 360; and Cranmer's Works, (Parker Soc.) ii. 442. It does not confirm the statements of the text in every particular. Cranmer had an interview with the king in the presence of the council, and desired to talk with him alone, but was not suffered to do so; nor did he personally consult the judges, but both the king and the privy council informed him of the opinions given by the lawyers, when “methought it became not me, being unlearned in the law, to stand against my prince,” and then, at the king's personal requisition, he placed his signature to the will

page 226 note b Edward Gryffyn. He, however, disappeared from the scene between the 12th and 14th of June, and consequently retained his place under.queen Mary. (See before, p. 46.)

page 227 note a Foxe has thus remoulded this passage,—“for as yet the old grudges agaynst the archbishop for the devoreement of her mother remayned hid in the bottom of her heart— Manet alta mente repostum Judicium Paridis spretceque injuria raatris.—Virgil. Æneid i.” [It is at this point of the text in the MS. that the handwriting changes.]

page 227 note b “Wherfore thes be to signifie to the world that it was not I that did sett up the masse at Canterbury, but it was a false, flatering, lyeng, and dissembling monke which causid the masse to be sett up ther, with out my advise or counsell.” This is the passage of the archbishop's declaration (noticed in the next page) which is quoted in the text. In the MS. at this place the following side-note is annexed, in a different hand to the text, “These words folowing were not in the archbishop's letters, but they [are] very true, and added by the wryter of this history, who knoweth his [Tbornden's] condition very well.”

page 227 note c Richard Thorndeu, alias Ie Stede, was vice-dean of Canterbury and suffragan bishop of Dover. Foxe tells us he was called “Dick of Dover,” and describes his death as ensuing from a sudden attack of palsy, as he was one Sunday “vertuously oooupied looking upon his men playing at the bowls,” at Bourne, near Canterbury. Foxe's pages abound with instances of his “cruel tyranny upon many godly men at Canterbury.” The oharaoter given of him in the text, Strype (Mem. of Cranmer, p. 305) attributes either to Soory or Becon: see the introductory remarks made in p. 218. (See additional notes.)

page 227 note d “Jodocus adeo stupidus erat, ut nisi veste saora commendaretur, obambularet publicitus in euculla fatui, cum auriculis ac tintinnabulis.” Erasmi Colloq. “Virgo Mισóγαμoς.”

page 228 note a Here on the MS. are written these words, “It is good that the letter itselfe be sette in; the copie of it in prynte is annexed *:” and upon the printed copy, which is accordingly “sett in,” are these words: “Joyne in yis letter hoc signo *;” to which Strype appended, “Bp. Grindal's hand.” The letter or declaration forms a small octavo leaf, “Imprynted 1557,” evidently with foreign types. It is the “Declaration concerning the Mass,” printed in vol. iv. p. 1, of Jenkyns's Remains of Cranmer j also in Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, p. 305, and Cranmer's Works, (Parker Soc.) i. 428. It was not published by the archbishop, but it is supposed to have been indiscreetly circulated by dr. Scory bishop of Chichester. A copy was publicly read in Cheapside on the 5th of September, 1553, which was nine days before Cranmer was committed to the Tower.

page 228 note b Hugh Weston, dean of Westminster and Windsor.

page 228 note c Above the name of lord Chandos is written in another hand “alias sir John Bridges.” But this is altogether a mistake. Lord Chandos was not present: but his brother sir Thomas Brydges of Cornbury, in Oxfordshire. Cranmer was accompanied to the stake “by the mayre and alldermen, and my lord Wyllyams, with whom came dyvers gentyllmen of the shyre, sir T, Abryges, sir John Browne, and others.” (Letter of J. A. mentioned in note c p. 229.)

page 229 note a Henry Cole, warden of New college, and dean of St. Paul's.

page 229 note b “I shall not nede, for the tyme of sarmon, to describe hys behavyour, hys sorrowfull countynance, his heyvye chere, his face bedewed with teares: sometyme lyftyng hys eyes to heaven in hope; sometyme castyng them downe to the earthe for shame: to be brefe, an image of sorowe, the dolore of hys hart burstyng owt at hys eyes in plentye of teares, retaynyng ever a quiet and grave behaveour, which incressed the pyttye in men's hartes, that they unfeynedly loved hym, hopyng yt had byn hys repentance for hys transgression and error.” (Letter of J. A.)

page 229 note c In the MS. Harl. 422 is preserved a contemporary account of the last hours of Cranmer, written by an eye-witness, and dated only two days after his execution. The writer, who signs J. A., though professedly condemning Cranmer, had an evident sympathy in his sufferings, and viewed his fate with deep commiseration, as the extract-just given has shown. This document, highly important and interesting, is printed by Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, p. 384; and by Todd, in his Life of Cranmer, vol. ii. p. 493. The report it contains of the last prayers and exhortation made by the martyr is not only remarkable as coming from a quarter professedly unfavourable, but further as coinciding very closely with that given in the text, and which was published by Foxe. How is this close coincidence to be accounted for ? I am inclined to think that the letter of J. A. is in fact the original, and that the version in the text was written from it for publication in the Actes and Monuments, certain modifications being made, which will be shewn in the ensuing notes. Most of the incidents also of Cranmer's last hour, as the pertinacious conduct of the two Spanish friars, and of Ely of Brazenose, who refused to take the martyr by the hand when parting at the stake, and the final and most striking incident of all, that of the archbishop stretching forth his right hand, and exposing it first to the flames—all these are related by J. A., and confirm the supposition that Foxe's account was really founded upon the letter of J. A.

page 230 note a Letter of J. A.

page 230 note b —“more grievously than any tongue,” Letter of J. A.

page 230 note c may be. Ib.

page 230 note d Misprinted run by Strype and by Todd.

page 230 note c and repent inserted.

page 230 note f a penitent. Letter of J.A.

page 230 note g and pytye inserted.

page 230 note h “for—remayne,” not in the letter of J. A.

page 231 note a Letter of J. A.

page 231 note b Written originally bodye, and corrected by a second hand to brother.

page 232 note a This is omitted in the letter of J. A.

page 232 note b In Oxford itself the scarcity “was so great, that several societies, being scarce able to live, had leave from their governors to go into the country to their respective homes, to remain there till such time as bread-corn was more plentiful.” Wood's Annals of the University of Oxford, under the year 1555.